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We recommend you open your worship and sermon with a focus on Advent. The theme of the Fourth Sunday of Advent is Love. You might include focusing on the theme, reading Scripture, lighting the fourth Advent candle, and offering a prayer of gratitude that God is love and his kingdom is loving. See our Advent Church Hack here.

Psalm 89:1–4, 19–26 • 2 Samuel 7:1–11, 16 • Romans 16:25–27 • Luke 1:26–38

The theme for this Sunday is God builds his kingdom in Jesus. In 2 Samuel 7, King David wants to build a house of cedar in which to place the ark of the covenant, which represents God’s presence among his people. The Lord sends Nathan the prophet to tell David that he never asked Israel’s leaders to build him a house. Rather, God says he will build David a house and that he will make his name great. This kingdom will endure forever. In Psalm 89, the psalmist celebrates God’s covenant with King David. The Lord promises to establish his seed forever, and to build up his throne for generations to come. This king will call God his Father. In the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel is sent from God to speak to Mary. He tells her she has found favor with God and will give birth to a son by the power of the Holy Spirit. She will name her son Jesus, for he will be great. He will be called the Son of God, and he will be given King David’s throne. In response, Mary yields herself to the Lord’s will. The apostle Paul in Romans 16 closes his letter with a doxology describing the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which leads to the obedience of faith.

Reminder: This introductory paragraph is intended to show how the four RCL selections for this week are connected and to assist the preacher prepare the sermon. It is not intended to be included in the sermon.

How to use this sermon resource.

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God Builds His Kingdom in Jesus

Luke 1:26–38 ESV

The theme for today, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, is Love. Pointing toward Christ’s promised return, Advent invites us to slow down. During Advent, we reflect on God’s faithfulness and welcome light into the darkness. May God prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.

In 2 Samuel 7, King David, who ruled over ancient Israel, decided he wanted to build God a house made of cedar — a temple. But God said the king would not be the one who would build God a temple. In fact, God had never asked anyone to build him a house. God didn’t need a house to live in.

Instead, God essentially said, “David, you aren’t going to build a house for me. I’m going to build a house for you.” God wasn’t talking about a building. He was talking about a family and a kingdom. God promised David that one day a king would come from his family whose kingdom would never end.

And then centuries passed. Kings came and went. Israel was divided. Jerusalem fell. God’s people were carried away into exile. Eventually they returned home, only to find themselves living under the power of the Hellenistic Empires, then the Roman Empire. Generation after generation passed. And God’s promise to David must have seemed like a forgotten promise.

This is one of the themes Advent invites us to reflect on each year. God’s people waited centuries for the fulfillment of his promise to David. There must have been times when it seemed as though God was silent. Yet Advent reminds us that God’s silence is not God’s absence. He remains faithful to his promises, even when their fulfillment takes longer than we expect.

And God had not forgotten. God’s story wasn’t over. Because when God makes a promise, God is faithful to it. And that brings us to a young woman named Mary living in an ordinary town called Nazareth.

Listen to what Luke tells us:

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

³⁵ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:26–38 ESV

Mary’s story must be understood within the context of when she lived. It is much different than what might happen today. Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph. Mary probably did not interact much with Joseph without chaperones being present. In her day, to be engaged was in fact, to be married by covenant to a man even though you did not live with him yet. An engagement could take up to a year before the groom married his bride and took her home.

But one day, Mary’s engagement was interrupted by a messenger from God:

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you! Luke 1:26–28 ESV

Needless to say, this must have been a shocking experience for Mary — to have a conversation with an angel. She must have been startled and amazed. The angel offers encouragement: “the Lord is with you!”

²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Luke 1:29–30 ESV

Notice that the angel emphasizes that Mary has received God’s favor. Gabriel calls her, “O favored one.” What God is giving Mary is not deserved, has not been earned, and she can do nothing to gain it. Rather, it is a gracious gift to her — a favor.

Gabriel continues his message:

³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1:31–33 ESV

All of a sudden, we are back in God’s story. There it is. The promise isn’t dead. God hasn’t forgotten David. God hasn’t abandoned Israel. God hasn’t changed his mind. God is keeping his promise.

And Mary is being invited to participate in God’s mission. He is establishing his eternal kingdom — the one he established through King David. Both Matthew and Luke trace Joseph’s and Mary’s ancestry to David: Joseph to David through Solomon and Mary through Nathan — a legal right to the throne through Joseph and a biological line through Mary.

Now God was going to do a new thing, and include a participant, Mary, in what he was going to do. But he is doing it in a way no one could have imagined. The everlasting kingdom isn’t going to arrive through a magnificent palace, a powerful army, or a wealthy king. It begins with a baby. It begins in Mary’s womb. It begins with God himself entering our human life. God builds his kingdom in Jesus.

Going on, Mary asks an important question:

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin? Luke 1:34 ESV

Right away, she wants to know how God is going to do this, and what her role is going to be. What does she have to do? But God builds his kingdom in Jesus, and he doesn’t need Mary to build it for him. He just wants her participation:

³⁵ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:35–37 ESV

Notice again who acts. Mary doesn’t make the miracle happen. Mary doesn’t build God’s kingdom for him. Mary receives what God is doing.

The Father sends the Son. The Son takes our humanity as his own. The Holy Spirit brings about this new beginning within Mary’s womb.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are acting together for us. Christians use the word Trinity to describe this mystery: there is one God who is eternally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And here in Mary’s womb, the triune God is acting to save and restore his creation.

The Father sends in love. The Son comes to be one of us. The Spirit brings about the Son’s human life within Mary. Salvation is God’s work from beginning to end.

And what God does here is even greater than giving Mary a miracle. God gives himself to us. The eternal Son of God becomes truly human. The one through whom the universe was made becomes a child within his own creation. He takes our flesh. He shares our life. He enters our world.

This is the Incarnation. It simply means that the Son of God truly became human without ceasing to be God. God doesn’t save humanity from a safe distance. God comes all the way into our humanity. That is how God builds his kingdom.

What impossible situation do you find yourself in today? Where do you feel the limits of your own strength today? God may not remove every difficulty in the way we expect or on the timeline we hope for, but he is present and active even in places that seem impossible to us. Perhaps he is inviting you to trust him, to notice where he is already at work, or to receive a different kind of hope than the one you first imagined. Our human limitations are not a problem for our triune God. Paul prayed the Ephesians might be strengthened knowing God is able to do more than we can ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

Now let’s read Mary’s response:

³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:38 ESV

Her response is beautiful. But notice the order. God acts first. God chooses. God promises. God gives. The Spirit acts. And Mary receives.

Mary isn’t the hero of a story about how much we can accomplish for God if we’re willing enough. Mary is a witness to the grace of a God who graciously includes human beings in what he is doing.

She gets to participate in God’s mission. She will carry Jesus. She will give birth to him. She will hold him and feed him. She will watch the eternal Son of God grow within the human life he has truly made his own. She will experience the joy of being his mother and eventually the terrible grief of watching him die.

But God’s kingdom does not depend upon Mary’s ability to build it. God builds his kingdom in Jesus. And that changes the way we understand our own participation in God’s work.

God builds his kingdom in Jesus and invites us to participate in the process. In this case, Mary carries the baby Jesus in her womb and gives birth to him in Bethlehem. She raises him and enables him to grow up into a mature adult who loves the Lord and serves him faithfully. This was her participation in what God is doing to redeem his people and to build his kingdom.

This brings us back to where we began, with David wanting to build God a grand house — a temple worthy of God’s presence. But God’s answer to David showed that his kingdom would not be built around temples and castles, or around what human beings could construct for him.

What God is building in Jesus is a kingdom of people, his Body. God is forming a new humanity in Christ — a people whose shared life bears witness to God’s coming kingdom. In Jesus, God is calling all people to worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). This is a kingdom of hearts and minds devoted to the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Through Jesus, all people are brought into the divine fellowship between our heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.

This child that Mary will carry in her womb is the One who is the Son of God in human flesh. Named Jesus at his birth, he will live a truly human life. He will not sin. And he will allow the humans he came to save to kill him. Dying on a cross, Jesus will carry away all sin, evil, and death, bringing them to an end in his own death. And he will lay in a tomb, just as each human is buried or cremated at death.

But the miracle that continues is that Jesus rose from the dead. The kingdom that Jesus started during his earthly ministry did not end. It continued in a new way. In Jesus, every human being was lifted up in the resurrection. Humans were given the gift of eternal life in him. And humans were carried with Jesus into the intimate fellowship of the Son of God with his Father in the Spirit.

The Spirit proceeded from the Father through Jesus . And God has invited us to participate now by the Spirit in what he is doing in this world. He is inviting us to participate in what he has given his Son Jesus to do — to build his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

God has sent his Spirit to us so that we can share by faith in Jesus’ own face-to-face relationship with his Father in the Spirit. And we can participate by faith in Jesus’ own mission here on earth.

God builds his kingdom in Jesus. And he invites us to participate with him in his mission. But don’t misunderstand! We do not advance God’s kingdom through social improvement.

Through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus has already won the decisive victory over sin, evil, and death. By the Holy Spirit, God continues to make known and manifest what Christ has accomplished. He is at work bringing healing where there is brokenness, hope where there is despair, and renewal where sin and death have left their mark. He invites us to join him in bearing witness to his kingdom and serving others in ways that reflect his love and grace.

God continues by the Spirit to make known and manifest what Christ has accomplished, drawing people into the life, freedom, and fellowship that are theirs in him. Christ’s saving work is complete; God’s redemptive activity in the world is ongoing.

God will finish what he started. God does not abandon his promises. God does not leave his work unfinished.

The Father has given us his Son. The Son has taken our humanity as his own. The Spirit has joined us to the life of Jesus. And the God who began this work will finish it.

Advent not only teaches us to look back to Christ’s first coming. It also teaches us to look forward with hope to his return. The same Jesus who came to Mary in humility will come again in glory. As we wait, we live in confidence that God will finish what he has begun.

Because one day Jesus will return. All that sin, evil, injustice, suffering, and death have damaged will finally be made new. Death will be gone. Tears will be wiped away. Creation will be healed. And humanity will share fully in the life God intended for us from the beginning.

Until then, we don’t live anxiously wondering whether we can accomplish enough for God. We live with hope. We live with open hands. We live together as people who have been caught up in something much bigger than ourselves.

We look for what the Father is already doing. We trust the Son who has already done for us what we could never do for ourselves. And we follow the Spirit who draws us into Jesus’ life and mission.

Mary’s words can become our grateful response — not a burden placed upon us, but the response grace creates within us: “Let it be to me according to your word.”

Because the future of God’s kingdom does not finally rest on Mary. It doesn’t rest on David. And it doesn’t rest on us. It rests on the faithfulness of the Father, the finished work of the Son, and the living power of the Holy Spirit.

God builds his kingdom in Jesus.

He has not abandoned his world. He has not forgotten his promises. He has not left humanity to save itself.

God has come to us. God is with us. God is making all things new. And God will finish what he has begun.

On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, when we reflect on God’s love, we see that love most clearly here. The Father sends the Son, not because humanity has earned his favor, but because God loves the world and desires to draw us into his own life and fellowship.

Thanks be to God.

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Go Deeper Here are some more passages about how God does the impossible and how nothing is impossible for him: Matt. 19:16–26; Gen. 18:11–14; 21:1–3; Acts 2:22–24.

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Small Group Discussion Questions